Google is unveiling a new service Thursday that will enable users of its Nexus S smartphone to pay for their purchases at certain retailers by waving their phones at the cash register, according to several news reports.

The new service will rely on a technology called near field communication that enables the phones to transmit data over short distances.

Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday that the media and the public have unrealistic, schizophrenic expectations of the social network because they praise it for enabling social revolutions at the same time as they bash it for invading their privacy.

Federal authorities need to shift more of their attention to computer chips as a platform for a well-organized attack on the United States by would-be saboteurs, warns a well-respected professor in the field of integrated circuits.

Wireless communications providers are rushing to restore their facilities to help the residents of Joplin, Mo., communicate with each other in the wake of the tornado that ripped through the town Sunday.

Robotic cars that can drive themselves could alleviate modern society's growing crisis in transportation by making more efficient use of highways, said Sebastian Thrun, a distinguished scientist at Google and a Stanford University professor, on Saturday.

A private e-mail from Comcast containing a harsh response to a critical Tweet about its hiring of a key federal regulator as a lobbyist has once again focused attention on the media conglomerate's size and power, underscoring the crucial role it plays in the media-driven economy.